The way this article is written really kind of irks me. The stock warrants were there as a guarantee in case Tesla defaulted on the loan, so that if they defaulted the government would have some collateral to collect in order to lower it's financial risk.<p>Tesla paid off the loan (good for them for doing so). So the loan collateral doesn't get collected.<p>"Depriving" the government of this stock, after paying off the loan, is folly.<p>If you take out a loan to buy a car, you put the car itself up as collateral for the loan. You can either pay off the loan, and keep the car, ir you can default on the loan, and lose the car.<p>Tesla just did the same thing except they used "car company" instead of "car".<p>Being snarky that Telsa "deprived" the government out of the loan collateral is akin to saying that you think the bank should own your car after you pay off your car loan, because you're depriving the bank of the value of the car, since you paid it off and they won't collect on the collateral.<p>What planet does this author live on where loan guarantors get both the loan payment <i>and</i> the collateral? Because I'd like to go there and loan the author every penny I can.